Being a staunch proponent of grasping software updates, we are looking forward to Chrome and Firefox version 100. After all, a century is considered nothing less than a blessing for many, but it might prove to be an issue of sorts for Google and Mozilla.
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So, what are we talking about here?
Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox are two of the most popular browsers. There are high chances that you are reading this post on one of these browsers. And, soon, the version of both the browsers is going to touch that “100 mark”.
While Google Chrome is going to attain this feat on March 29th, Mozilla Firefox is going to become Firefox v100 on May 3rd.
Now the question here is that, is the leap auspicious or is it something that’s going to spell doom?
At the outset, we’d like to mention – We are quite hopeful that both the biggies i.e. Chrome and Firefox are backed up and packed up to tackle this. As Google already does, Google had already warned us of this upgrade back in December 2021 and even Mozilla has provided instructions or testing measures, rather, if your website may be affected. We’ll discuss this a little later in the blog, so stay tuned and read the blog till the very last.
This Would Interest You
This kind of reminds me of the Y2K bug when computers and users had problems with dates beyond December 31, 1999. It was quite big of a deal back then. Want to know more, you can visit this post. Quite a similar issue occurred some 12 years ago when browsers first reached version 10.
Who Is Going To Get Affected and How?
Both the consumers of the world wide web i.e. the general users and website developers may have to bear the effect.
What Exactly Is Going To Happen?
When you visit a website using the browser, its user-agent tags along with the request for the web page. Whenever a browser reverts with a version number that has three digits, it could create problems. In that regard, let’s ponder upon one of Mozilla’s blog posts, here’s what Mozilla said –
“Without a single specification to follow, different browsers have different formats for the User-Agent string and site-specific User-Agent parsing. Some parsing libraries may have hard-coded assumptions or bugs that don’t take into account three-digit major version numbers. Many libraries improved the parsing logic when browsers moved to two-digit version numbers, so hitting the three-digit milestone is expected to cause fewer problems.”
Concerning what we just read, let’s bring things into perspective –
What is a User-Agent String? And, Why Does It Matter?
The user-agent is a string that is used by your web browser, it consists of information such as the browser name, the software, its version number, and the technologies it uses. All this information is important for a webpage or website that you visit because it tweaks its response based on that.
Now, as Google and Mozilla have found, some major websites are hardcoded to only expect a 2 digit version number. This means if presented with a three-digit browser number, they may have issues.
How The Browsers Intend To Tackle The “v100” Mark?
Like we said both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are experimenting and becoming ready for version 100. However, if this “v100” becomes a big deal, both the browsers may freeze the user-agent at version 99. Apart from freezing, Mozilla intends to fix the broken websites.
As a user, if you face any issues, you can visit the webpage, copy and paste the URL of the website here.
Also, as published in a blog by Google Chrome, here is something you can do to check if your browser is sending major version 100. For this first, visit this page. If you receive No then –
- In Chrome’s address bar type chrome://flags
- Start by typing force majo in the Search flags area
- Click on the dropdown next to Force major version to 100 in User-Agent and select Enabled
Some tips have even come from Mozilla’s side as well –
- Open the Settings of Firefox Nightly
- Search Firefox 100 and further check the “Firefox 100 User-Agent String”
- As a developer or someone who maintains websites – Test if your website is Chrome and Firefox 100 compatible by reviewing your User-Agent libraries and code. This way you’ll know if your website can handle versions with three-digits or not
What’s Your Take?
How’d you like this post and what are your expectations from Google Chrome’s and Mozilla Firefox’s version 100? Do let us know in the comments section below. For more intriguing tech-related content, keep reading WeTheGeek.